One less scumbag in the world

[DeistPaladin]

The American society for sure. According to most Americans hitler was an ultra left wing socialist / liberal atheist who only gassed Jews and evangelical protestant christians in order to wipe out christianity, capitalism, and freedom in the name of liberalism, atheism, and Charles Darwin.

Yeah...we got some not so bright ones over here.

I take issue with "most". It was Glenn Beck who seemed to start that meme. At least, I hadn't heard it before he started spouting his tin foil hat nonsense.

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I think he should've listened to his Generals and not invaded Russia. He overuled his Generals on tactical decisions. Hitler rose to the almighty rank of Lance-Corporal. How different would it have been if he listened and wasn't hotheaded?

Godwin's Law - wins.

I'd have called off the whole war and never persecuted any minority (but well, duh, so would anyone). I think Germany could have used peaceful means to redress some of their grievances with Versailles. Pitting Communist Russia against the red-scared West could have yielded enough bargaining chips that Britain and France might have been willing to renegotiate a few key points.

I've heard some speculate that might have been Chamberlain's real motivation (a bull-work against Communism) and he just didn't see the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact coming. It was only after the pact was made and Poland was invaded that he went to war too late. I'm not defending Chamberlain but it would have been interesting to discover if this were the case. Kind of a Frankenstein's monster tragedy.

While discussing what ifs, here's one I'd like to ask. When I read the history, it seems to me the downfall of the German Empire (pre-WWI) was when they listened to Tripitz and started building a fleet to try to rival Britain. This seemed to me a stupid move, politically, since relations with France were pretty much screwed by the conflict over Alsalce-Lorraine and relations with Russia were bound to be chilly over the Balkan situation. Why did they want to honk off the British too? It seems to me the Kaiser could have played Britain and France against each other over their colonial rivalry, avoid building any navy and tried to build good relations with Britain. This might have avoided WWI completely.

I'd run this what-if past a friend of mine who had closely studied British history. He didn't think it was likely Britain would be keen on a close friendship with Germany at that point. Britain had always been careful about the balance of power on the mainland of Europe, probably remembering what happened the last time an Empire gained hegemony on that continent. They sided with the disunited Germans against the French to keep France from growing past the Rhine. It was only natural to switch sides once Germany united.

Sorry, topic drift...